For a 90 minute, short story type of film, Please Give starts to feel too baggy...

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 7, 2024

Formless and complicated. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Jul 14, 2022

Though some may argue that the film doesn't fully challenge white female privilege (or tire of Kate's crying), it's to the film's credit that it uses this as character detail and tries to mine humor and social commentary from it.

Full Review | Jan 11, 2021

About the people who give, the people who don't give and how we finally manage to connect with one another.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Sep 20, 2020

Please Give is truly a film for our age; it's darkly comic stuff from a mistress of the miserable-urbanites genre.

Full Review | Jan 22, 2020

Holofcener brings a knowing empathy to all her characters, even the cruel cosmetician played by Peet. But she seems to have found a screen surrogate in Keener...

Full Review | Jul 23, 2019

The most underrated American director this side of Richard Linklater, Nicole Holofcener, continues to be a master of The Moment: a tiny but meaningful exchange or look or gesture that conveys more emotion than any awards-bait monologue could.

Full Review | Nov 17, 2018

In writer/director Nicole Holofcener's crisp, poignant and funny new movie, Kipling's "white man's burden" has evolved into the liberal woman's guilt.

Full Review | Original Score: 8.5/10 | Dec 3, 2017

In another director's hands, this subject might have been rife with sanctimony. Instead, Holofcener has made a sly, urbane comedy with several smart actresses who make her acerbic dialogue lively and believable, character-driven.

Full Review | Sep 18, 2017

Funny at times, Please Give is a surprisingly heartwarming coming-of-age film for six adults all passing through different stages of heir life.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Sep 11, 2017

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 17, 2011

You have to be smart and funny and really aware of yourself to write and direct a film like this, which is exactly what director Nicole Holofcener is.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 4, 2011

Doesn't have much plot, just characters interacting and developing, and its lack of a need for drama is refreshing.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Jan 25, 2011

Its conclusions are thoughtful and non-judgmental; satisfying even if it pulls a few punches.

Full Review | Sep 10, 2010

Holofcener takes pretty much everything you're not supposed to talk about at a dinner party and spins it into a ruefully awkward, bone-dry comedy.

Full Review | Sep 9, 2010

The film is more emotionally incisive than it initially appears to be, but equally it ties together a little too neatly when it already has such a concise running time.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 9, 2010

Keener never lets us lose sight of something possibly redeemable about Kate, a move which ultimately saves her performance from lapsing into an easy social caricature.

Full Review | Sep 9, 2010

Please Give isn't laugh-out-loud funny, it is witty and clever-a pleasing tale where not much happens, but spending time with the film's characters is enough.

Full Review | Sep 8, 2010

The main problem with the film, though, is that it seems to assume that self-obsessed and charmless people are automatically interesting - just for being people. There's definitely a flaw in that logic.

Full Review | Sep 7, 2010

It's involving and often gripping with wonderful performances by a top cast, although the sum of its parts is less than the story as a whole

Full Review | Sep 3, 2010